Shropshire Star Friday,January 25, 2013 Books Loopy ... … · Shropshire Star Friday,January 25,...
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Friday, January 25, 2013 Shropshire Star SS 25 www.shropshirestar.com DVDs Loopy cartoon capers that are so well-timed House At The End Of The Street (15) Starring: Jennifer Lawrence,Elisabeth Shue,Max Thieriot Running time: 96 mins Jennifer Lawrence takes time out from the blockbusting Hunger Games series to play a young woman in peril in Mark Tonderai’s predictable horror. Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) is still smarting from an acrimo- nious divorce and she moves into a new house in an idyllic rural town with her pretty daughter, Elissa (Lawrence). The family home is perfect and the locals seem lovely, then strange events begin to happen and Sarah and Elissa learn that the house next door was once a murder scene. A young woman killed her parents there and left her brother, Ryan (Max Thieriot), as the sole survivor of the car- nage. Sarah is understandably reluctant to allow Elissa to forge a friendship with Ryan but her daughter is drawn to the recluse, venturing into the house stained by the blood of the past. Behind locked doors lie terrifying secrets and Elissa quickly realises that unspeakable evil lurks within her neighbourhood. Resident Evil: Retribution (15) Here we go again – the fifth instalment of Resident Evil Our house – predictable scares in this horror film Starring: Milla Jovovich, Bingbing Li, Sienna Guillory, Johann Urb, Boris Kodjoe, Michelle Rodriguez, Kevin Durand, Oded Fehr, Shawn Roberts. Running time: 91 mins Alice (Milla Jovovich) continues her battle against the shadowy Umbrella Corporation in the fifth instalment of the horror franchise. At the conclusion of Resident Evil: After- life, Alice found herself on a ship, repelling hordes of heav- ily armed Umbrella soldiers. The vessel explodes and Alice plummets into the icy waters below, waking some time later as a prisoner in a subterranean Umbrella facility. Ada Wong (Bingbing Li), the right-hand woman of Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts), helps Alice to escape her con- finement and it transpires that the artificial intelligence known as the Red Queen has usurped Wesker as head honcho of the corporation and is already amassing forces to eradicate mankind. Written and directed by Paul WS Anderson Resident Evil: Retribution is a cacophony of digital effects and slow- motion slaughter. Dialogue is excruciating, reducing con- versations to one-sentence exchanges. From time travelling assassins to cartoon psychics, Damon Smith finds this week’s DVD releases stylish and properly funny ParaNorman (PG) Featuring the voices of: Kodi Smit- McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Elaine Stritch, Bernard Hill, Jodelle Ferland, Tempestt Bledsoe, Alex Borstein, John Goodman. Running time: 88 mins Rating: ✰✰✰✰ Looper (15) Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Pierce Gagnon, Piper Perabo, Jeff Daniels, Summer Qing, Frank Bren- nan, Garret Dillahunt. Running time: 113 mins Rating: ✰✰✰✰ J oe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is an assassin, or ‘looper’, who guns down hooded targets that have been sent back in time by his mob bosses in 2044 Kansas. Silver bars are strapped to the back of each target – payment for the pull of a trigger – and once Joe has inciner- ated the lifeless body, he stashes his spoils in the hidden floor-space of his swanky apartment. Like all loopers, Joe knows his life expectancy is finite and one day he will “close the loop” by gunning down his future self. When the time comes for Joe to kill Future Joe (Bruce Willis), he hesitates, allowing his older incarnation to escape. The race between hunter and hunted leads to a remote farmhouse, where mother Sara (Emily Blunt) and her son Cid (Pierce Gagnon) reside far from prying eyes. Looper is an ingeniously plotted thriller that exploits the gaping plot holes afforded by time travel. Stylishly Writer-director Rian Johnson’s script demands constant vigilance to keep track of alternate, intersecting plot threads. It’s all meticulously planned and stylishly executed, realising Marty McFly’s worst nightmare from the Back To The Future series by allowing a hero to co-exist with his future self in the same timeframe. The ripple effect leads to a simple yet striking flourish: wounds inflicted on a young protagonist simultaneously manifest as scars on the older self. This temporal tor- ture allows characters to cleverly commu- nicate with each other by scoring letters and symbols into their own flesh. Plot mechanics trump performances throughout, so Gordon-Levitt’s usual inten- sity is muted and Willis plays to his strengths as an action man. ✰ Perry (voiced by Jeff Garlin) and Sandra (Leslie Mann) live in Blithe Hollow with their daughter Courtney (Anna Kendrick) and son Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who can see and communicate with the dearly departed. They are stunned when deranged Uncle Prenderghast (John Goodman) pays a sur- prise visit. “The witch’s curse is real and you’re the only one who can stop it,” Prenderghast instructs Norman, who discovers he has inherited his supernatural abilities from his dotty relative. Soon after, the seven people who sent witch Aggie (Jodelle Ferland) to her doom back in 1712 rise from the grave and run amok, led by the menacing Judge (Bernard Hill). Sheriff Hooper (Tempestt Bledsoe) strug- gles to maintain calm so Norman joins forces with classmate Neil (Tucker Albrizzi), Time’s up – Bruce Willis in time-travelling Loopers Hot shot – Emily Blunt plays mother Sara in the film Loopers Everything Or Nothing (12) Running time: 93 mins For the past 50 years, James Bond has entertained cin- ema audiences with his thrilling missions around the world, clashing with villains such as Blofeld, Scaramanga and Auric Goldfinger. The latest instalment, Skyfall, has become the highest grossing film of all time at the UK box office and looks set to win at least one Oscar for Adele's theme tune. Director Stevan Riley celebrates the enduring popu- larity of the franchise in this feature-length documentary, which charts the history of the series from its origins in the imagination of writer Ian Fleming to the big screen, where tensions between producers Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman provided as much drama off screen as on it. Cast and crew from the various films share their mem- ories, intercut with famous scenes and rare behind-the- scenes footage of the six Bonds – Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig – bringing the dashing secret agent to life. Memories – Daniel Craig dug out the old car in Skyfall his buff older brother Mitch (Casey Affleck) and school bully Alvin (Christopher Mintz- Plasse) to break the curse. ParaNorman is an intelligent and hilari- ous stop-motion 3D animation that opens with a tongue-in-cheek homage to George A Romero. Chris Butler and Sam Fell’s colourful romp might be aimed at families but par- ents and teenagers will laugh the loudest at the sly visual gags. Young children might be slightly unnerved by severed limbs that scuttle around of their own accord but violence is cartoonish and scares are gentle. Smit-McPhee tugs heartstrings as the loner who would give anything to lose his ability to communicate with the dead. Animation bursts with vibrant colour and the attention to detail is remarkable in fre- netic action scenes, especially in 3D, which is available exclusively on Blu-ray. Dead funny – ParaNorman is an hilarious animated psychic caper Phone home – communicating with the dead leads to laughs Books By Peter Fawcett Published by Donald A. & Philip Bedford As this 370-page hardback book has a price tag of £38 (to include postage), two things are apparent. The first is that it’s been a veritable labour of love over many years by Peter Fawcett, who has striven to write a defini- tive account of the history and development of hand-bell ringing. And the second is that the people who are going to seek out and buy this book are going to be RINGING FOR GOLD people who either have a personal interest in hand-bell ringing or a family connection with the tradition. It seems to have been a mainly north of England thing, but it turns out that there have also been successful hand-bell ringing groups in Shropshire as well. This is an admirable project seen through to completion by Fawcett. For the lay person, there are interesting side- lights, such as when you put some bells down on the table there can be a sort of aftertone which can be artfully exploited by the true experts in the field. And there are var- ious different techniques in actually ringing the bell, to achieve different effects. The popularity of hand-bell ringing has waxed and waned as it has gone in and out of fashion from time to time. The book includes plenty of old photos, full colour photos, and various bits and pieces of memorabilia are reproduced. It also has an index, which is particularly use- ful in a work of this sort. Many congratulations to Mr Faw- cett for his research and for bringing this book to fruition. It feels like he has spared no expense in doing so but, as the foreword says, it is a book “which had to be pub- lished”. Incidentally it’s available through www.ringingforgold.co.uk Review by Toby Neal By Tilly Bagshawe Published by Harper From the pen of this prolific author, with nine previous novels to her name, comes another deli- cious book for the ladies. The story tells of three old friends all now embarked on very different lives: Cat, feeling well past her prime and whose hus- band has left her for a younger woman, Kendall who is sure she has it all with her successful recording career, and Ava, totally FRIENDS AND RIVALS unworldly but now thrown into the cut-throat world of fame. Kendall and Ava become unwitting rivals, pitted against each other in a battle for the top spot, and with Cat fearing that she can only trust one of them, the three friends are all tempted to betray one another as they navigate their way through a world of backstabbing and greed. The author has cleverly woven her plot and created three strong characters, each of whom deserves a book of her own in my opinion. Old friends can make the worst of enemies, and we all have someone in our lives of whom this is true. Bagshawe has an uncanny knack of writing for women of all ages and this book hits the spot, just as all her others have done for me. Good reading for these long cold evenings. Review by Sally Bunn By Stephen Hunt Published by Harper Voyager This is a mixture of high adven- ture, crime, and magic from a prolific sci-fi and Fantasy writer. Middlesteel, in the Kingdom, is under siege from a murderous enemy who cannot be seen but who leaves bloodless corpses in his wake. Vampire? Maybe. In return for a handsome reward, Mistress of Mesmerism, Charlotte Shades is approached by two mysterious men who ask her to FROM THE DEEP OF THE DARK steal the King’s sceptre from deep inside the Parliament vaults, and, being the superb thief that she is, she agrees, little knowing that her magic may not protect her from forces well beyond her control. Two detectives, Jethro Daunt and his sidekick Boxiron, wade into the fray to rescue Charlotte but uncover a plot thicker than they had ever imagined. While escaping from the mayhem, in an ancient submarine, they encounter stiff resistance from a strange race who inhabit the deep underwater realms, but trying to convince these creatures to join them in their fight against a danger that threatens all their worlds is an uphill struggle. Hunt’s imagination knows no limits and this is fast-mov- ing and spellbinding stuff from a master of his genre. Review by Sally Bunn HARBOUR NOCTURNE By Joseph Wambaugh Published by Head of Zeus The latest novel by veteran US crime writer Joseph Wambaugh finds him back on familiar ground – patrolling the mean streets of Hollywood. You might expect the plot of his latest adventure – layabout long- shoreman finds love and redemp- tion when he falls for a Mexican stripper – to be little more than a B-movie cliche, but the writing and the characters lift this tale out of the ordinary. He does not rely on shocking twists and turns to keep the plot moving, but instead slowly builds up the tension. A great read. Review by Robert Dex
Transcript of Shropshire Star Friday,January 25, 2013 Books Loopy ... … · Shropshire Star Friday,January 25,...
Friday, January 25, 2013Shropshire Star SS 2255www.shropshirestar.com
dvds
Loopy cartoon capersthat are so well-timed
House At The End Of The Street (15)
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence,Elisabeth Shue,Max ThieriotRunning time: 96 mins
Jennifer Lawrence takes time out from the blockbustingHunger Games series to play a young woman in peril inMark Tonderai’s predictable horror.
Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) is still smarting from an acrimo-nious divorce and she moves into a new house in an idyllicrural town with her pretty daughter, Elissa (Lawrence).
The family home is perfect and the locals seem lovely,then strange events begin to happen and Sarah and Elissalearn that the house next door was once a murder scene.
A young woman killed her parents there and left herbrother, Ryan (Max Thieriot), as the sole survivor of the car-nage.
Sarah is understandably reluctant to allow Elissa to forgea friendship with Ryan but her daughter is drawn to therecluse, venturing into the house stained by the blood ofthe past.
Behind locked doors lie terrifying secrets and Elissaquickly realises that unspeakable evil lurks within herneighbourhood.
Resident Evil: Retribution (15)
Here we go again – the fifth instalment of Resident Evil Our house – predictable scares in this horror filmStarring: Milla Jovovich, Bingbing Li, Sienna Guillory,
Johann Urb, Boris Kodjoe, Michelle Rodriguez, KevinDurand, Oded Fehr, Shawn Roberts.Running time: 91 mins
Alice (Milla Jovovich) continues her battle against theshadowy Umbrella Corporation in the fifth instalment of thehorror franchise. At the conclusion of Resident Evil: After-life, Alice found herself on a ship, repelling hordes of heav-ily armed Umbrella soldiers. The vessel explodes and Aliceplummets into the icy waters below, waking some timelater as a prisoner in a subterranean Umbrella facility.
Ada Wong (Bingbing Li), the right-hand woman of AlbertWesker (Shawn Roberts), helps Alice to escape her con-finement and it transpires that the artificial intelligenceknown as the Red Queen has usurped Wesker as headhoncho of the corporation and is already amassing forcesto eradicate mankind.
Written and directed by Paul WS Anderson Resident Evil:Retribution is a cacophony of digital effects and slow-motion slaughter. Dialogue is excruciating, reducing con-versations to one-sentence exchanges.
From time travelling assassins to cartoonpsychics, Damon Smith finds this week’sDVD releases stylish and properly funny
ParaNorman (PG)Featuring the voices of: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, AnnaKendrick, Casey Affleck, ChristopherMintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin,Elaine Stritch, Bernard Hill, JodelleFerland, Tempestt Bledsoe, AlexBorstein, John Goodman.Running time: 88 mins
Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Looper (15)Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt,Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano,Pierce Gagnon, Piper Perabo, JeffDaniels, Summer Qing, Frank Bren-nan, Garret Dillahunt.Running time: 113 mins
Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)is an assassin, or ‘looper’,who guns down hooded
targets that have been sentback in time by his mob bossesin 2044 Kansas.
Silver bars are strapped to the backof each target – payment for the pull ofa trigger – and once Joe has inciner-ated the lifeless body, he stashes hisspoils in the hidden floor-space of hisswanky apartment.
Like all loopers, Joe knows his lifeexpectancy is finite and one day he will“close the loop” by gunning down hisfuture self. When the time comes for Joe tokill Future Joe (Bruce Willis), he hesitates,allowing his older incarnation to escape.
The race between hunter and huntedleads to a remote farmhouse, wheremother Sara (Emily Blunt) and her son Cid(Pierce Gagnon) reside far from pryingeyes.
Looper is an ingeniously plotted thrillerthat exploits the gaping plot holes affordedby time travel.
StylishlyWriter-director Rian Johnson’s script
demands constant vigilance to keep trackof alternate, intersecting plot threads.
It’s all meticulously planned and stylishlyexecuted, realising Marty McFly’s worstnightmare from the Back To The Futureseries by allowing a hero to co-exist with hisfuture self in the same timeframe.
The ripple effect leads to a simple yetstriking flourish: wounds inflicted on ayoung protagonist simultaneously manifest
as scars on the older self. This temporal tor-ture allows characters to cleverly commu-nicate with each other by scoring lettersand symbols into their own flesh.
Plot mechanics trump performancesthroughout, so Gordon-Levitt’s usual inten-sity is muted and Willis plays to hisstrengths as an action man.
✰Perry (voiced by Jeff Garlin)and Sandra (Leslie Mann) livein Blithe Hollow with their
daughter Courtney (Anna Kendrick)and son Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee),who can see and communicate withthe dearly departed.
They are stunned when deranged UnclePrenderghast (John Goodman) pays a sur-prise visit.
“The witch’s curse is real and you’re theonly one who can stop it,” Prenderghastinstructs Norman, who discovers he hasinherited his supernatural abilities from hisdotty relative.
Soon after, the seven people who sentwitch Aggie (Jodelle Ferland) to her doomback in 1712 rise from the grave and runamok, led by the menacing Judge (BernardHill).
Sheriff Hooper (Tempestt Bledsoe) strug-gles to maintain calm so Norman joinsforces with classmate Neil (Tucker Albrizzi),
Time’s up – Bruce Willis in time-travelling Loopers
Hot shot – Emily Blunt plays mother Sara in the film Loopers
Everything Or Nothing (12)
Running time: 93 mins
For the past 50 years, James Bond has entertained cin-ema audiences with his thrilling missions around theworld, clashing with villains such as Blofeld, Scaramangaand Auric Goldfinger.
The latest instalment, Skyfall, has become the highestgrossing film of all time at the UK box office and looks setto win at least one Oscar for Adele's theme tune.
Director Stevan Riley celebrates the enduring popu-larity of the franchise in this feature-length documentary,which charts the history of the series from its origins inthe imagination of writer Ian Fleming to the big screen,where tensions between producers Albert R Broccoli andHarry Saltzman provided as much drama off screen ason it.
Cast and crew from the various films share their mem-ories, intercut with famous scenes and rare behind-the-scenes footage of the six Bonds – Sean Connery, GeorgeLazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnanand Daniel Craig – bringing the dashing secret agent tolife.
Memories – Daniel Craig dug out the old car in Skyfall
his buff older brother Mitch (Casey Affleck)and school bully Alvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) to break the curse.
ParaNorman is an intelligent and hilari-ous stop-motion 3D animation that openswith a tongue-in-cheek homage to GeorgeA Romero.
Chris Butler and Sam Fell’s colourfulromp might be aimed at families but par-ents and teenagers will laugh the loudestat the sly visual gags.
Young children might be slightlyunnerved by severed limbs that scuttlearound of their own accord but violence iscartoonish and scares are gentle.
Smit-McPhee tugs heartstrings as theloner who would give anything to lose hisability to communicate with the dead.
Animation bursts with vibrant colour andthe attention to detail is remarkable in fre-netic action scenes, especially in 3D,which is available exclusively on Blu-ray.
Dead funny – ParaNorman is an hilarious animated psychic caper
Phone home – communicating with the dead leads to laughs
BooksBy Peter FawcettPublished by Donald A. & PhilipBedford
As this 370-page hardbackbook has a price tag of £38 (toinclude postage), two things areapparent. The first is that it’s beena veritable labour of love overmany years by Peter Fawcett,who has striven to write a defini-tive account of the history anddevelopment of hand-bell ringing.And the second is that the peoplewho are going to seek out andbuy this book are going to be
ringing for gold
people who either have a personal interest in hand-bellringing or a family connection with the tradition. It seemsto have been a mainly north of England thing, but it turnsout that there have also been successful hand-bell ringinggroups in Shropshire as well.
This is an admirable project seen through to completionby Fawcett. For the lay person, there are interesting side-lights, such as when you put some bells down on the tablethere can be a sort of aftertone which can be artfullyexploited by the true experts in the field. And there are var-ious different techniques in actually ringing the bell, toachieve different effects.
The popularity of hand-bell ringing has waxed andwaned as it has gone in and out of fashion from time totime. The book includes plenty of old photos, full colourphotos, and various bits and pieces of memorabilia arereproduced. It also has an index, which is particularly use-ful in a work of this sort. Many congratulations to Mr Faw-cett for his research and for bringing this book to fruition.It feels like he has spared no expense in doing so but, asthe foreword says, it is a book “which had to be pub-lished”.
Incidentally it’s available throughwww.ringingforgold.co.uk
Review by Toby Neal
By Tilly BagshawePublished by Harper
From the pen of this prolificauthor, with nine previous novelsto her name, comes another deli-cious book for the ladies.
The story tells of three oldfriends all now embarked on verydifferent lives: Cat, feeling wellpast her prime and whose hus-band has left her for a youngerwoman, Kendall who is sure shehas it all with her successfulrecording career, and Ava, totally
friends and rivals
unworldly but now thrown into the cut-throat world of fame.Kendall and Ava become unwitting rivals, pitted againsteach other in a battle for the top spot, and with Cat fearingthat she can only trust one of them, the three friends areall tempted to betray one another as they navigate theirway through a world of backstabbing and greed.
The author has cleverly woven her plot and createdthree strong characters, each of whom deserves a bookof her own in my opinion. Old friends can make the worstof enemies, and we all have someone in our lives of whomthis is true.
Bagshawe has an uncanny knack of writing for womenof all ages and this book hits the spot, just as all her othershave done for me. Good reading for these long coldevenings.
Review by Sally Bunn
By Stephen HuntPublished by Harper Voyager
This is a mixture of high adven-ture, crime, and magic from aprolific sci-fi and Fantasy writer.
Middlesteel, in the Kingdom, isunder siege from a murderousenemy who cannot be seen butwho leaves bloodless corpses inhis wake. Vampire? Maybe. Inreturn for a handsome reward,Mistress of Mesmerism, CharlotteShades is approached by twomysterious men who ask her to
from the deep of the dark
steal the King’s sceptre from deep inside the Parliamentvaults, and, being the superb thief that she is, she agrees,little knowing that her magic may not protect her fromforces well beyond her control.
Two detectives, Jethro Daunt and his sidekick Boxiron,wade into the fray to rescue Charlotte but uncover a plotthicker than they had ever imagined. While escaping fromthe mayhem, in an ancient submarine, they encounter stiffresistance from a strange race who inhabit the deepunderwater realms, but trying to convince these creaturesto join them in their fight against a danger that threatensall their worlds is an uphill struggle.
Hunt’s imagination knows no limits and this is fast-mov-ing and spellbinding stuff from a master of his genre.
Review by Sally Bunn
harbour nocturneBy Joseph WambaughPublished by Head of Zeus
The latest novel by veteran UScrime writer Joseph Wambaughfinds him back on familiarground – patrolling the meanstreets of Hollywood.
You might expect the plot of hislatest adventure – layabout long-shoreman finds love and redemp-tion when he falls for a Mexicanstripper – to be little more than aB-movie cliche, but the writing andthe characters lift this tale out of the ordinary. He does notrely on shocking twists and turns to keep the plot moving,but instead slowly builds up the tension. A great read.
Review by Robert Dex
